As the Internet has grown in popularity, more users are turning to services provided over the Internet to help manage their finances.
These services can be provided by financial institutions, such as banks or credit card companies, or by account aggregators who aggregate and present user-specific financial information from one or more financial institutions.
Users typically use a user name and password to log-in to web page(s) maintained by a financial institution or an account aggregator. From the web page(s), the user can access online banking, electronic bill payment, account aggregation, and other online financial services.
Online banking provides a user access to his or her financial information and also offers a number of services to a user. Users can, for example, view their statements online, including transaction details and cancelled checks, transfer balances online, and apply for loans online.
Users can also use electronic bill payment to pay bills online by transferring money from an account to a creditor through the Internet. Many financial institutions and account aggregators allow a user to pay all of his or her bills from their web page(s). Users can also schedule payments to creditors from some financial institution and account aggregator web pages. Users can also authorize automatic payments to satisfy periodic financial obligations. A payment is made automatically when, for example, a biller charges a user account or debits a user account without direct user input.
Account aggregation involves presenting financial information related to one or more accounts of a user in one place. Each account can be with a different financial institution. Account aggregation makes it easy for a user to quickly get a picture of his or her overall finances.